I Want to Ride My Bicycle

I hadn’t really rode a bike much since I was a kid. However, in Japan, it was the easiest way for me to get to my school and around town. While riding to a bar one night with a few friends I had made, I got into an  accident with another cyclist. I flew right over my bike and landed on top of it. There was a lot of blood and bruising. The female that ran into me apologized, bowed, and took off. We were closer to the bar than my apartment so we made our way there, where the kind bartender helped clean and bandage me up. 

I had a terrible time sitting seiza (the proper form of sitting in Japan, basically sitting on your knees) for at least two weeks. If you’ve ever watched women in a tea ceremony, that’s sitting seiza. Riding my bike proved just as painful as I couldn’t bend my knees without feeling the burn. 

I felt that burn for at least 2 weeks. After the crash, I decided to stay off the sidewalks and stick to the road. Riding a bike on the opposite side of the road than what I was accustomed to, with no bike lane or helmet seemed safer than the sidewalk in a city of more than 700,000. 

Riding on the road went smoothly until I hit a taxi. Did that deter me from riding a bike? No, I am much more stubborn than that. A few months later, I hit a curb while feeling a bit tipsy and heading home from the izakaya (a Japanese pub). I went down in front of my favourite convenience store, Family Mart (more on this store later) and there were no fewer than five people that came out to help me. Japanese people are very kind. I don't think it was a common occurrence for a crazy gaijin (foreigner) to take a spill in front of them. I'm glad I couldn't fully understand what they were saying. 

If Uber had been around back then, it could have saved both me and my bike a few scrapes. That bike was the best. It had a bell to let people know I was approaching and to get out of my way, and a basket to keep my books, bag and groceries. I rode it during both rainy and typhoon season. It was a lot harder than you'd think! My bike was my favourite mode of transportation, followed closely by the train.

~MT